Started in L.A. with casting and meetings, then a final week in New York and now have been here in Atlanta for two weeks getting ready to shoot.  Our locations are chosen, shot listing and storyboarding is happening, local casting in in process, we have an amazing staff and crew planning every aspect of the shoot.

But mostly we’ve been writing.  Ken and I have spent every waking moment staring into the screen working on the script.  Nature of the beast I suppose – but this one’s been particularly grueling. Many factors to juggle and many different entities that each have a vested interest in the script – and our job to keep on track, keep it one story, one voice.  Which translates into us waking up ungodly early, driving 20 minutes to an office park in suburban Atlanta, rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, drive back to the hotel late at night and pass out.  I have to say it’s a pretty great job – getting paid to use my brain all day and sitting in a comfortable chair.  Plus if I make mistakes, nobody loses a limb or anything.  But it’s also unbelievably tiring, and take its toll on my body, my family, my sanity.

I think in filmmaking I always tend to be impatient to get to the next phase of the process.  Right now that’s where I am.  Looking forward to being done with the writing (never happens) and into the shooting.  We have an AMAZING cast and I can’t wait to see them all when they get here.

Okay enough typing and watching Oceans 11 on cable. Going to bed.

Me and new friends at Comic Con

Plus in just the past two weeks I’ve had a wedding in South Carolina, Childrens Hospital events at the Montreal Comedy Festival and Comic Con in San Diego, and one day of scouting in Georgia with the key crew.  Now it’s two final weeks of writing, crew meetings and casting (one in LA, one in NY) then down to Georgia for good.

Today I spent a few hours with Jon Stern and Rob Corddry charting out the broad strokes for the next season of Childrens Hospital (10:30 every Sunday on Adult Swim), which I will have to miss the actual shooting of.

Hard to imagine it’ll all be ready in just six weeks, but I guess I’ve done this before, and the team is awesome…so here we go…

I spent two marathon weeks here mapping out the new draft of WanderLust with Ken, pretty much without a break except to sleep.  Well we walked around the Gay Pride street fair and got a smoothie one day, and I did go to Our Town one night which I loved. Michael McKean was awesome. Played squash once. Did some casting sessions. Lots of phone calls and other meetings. But mostly Ken and I sat in my not-very-well air conditioned office pouring through thousands of notes from producers, studio and friends. We then emerged with a “beat sheet” that we could use to communicate to all concerned what the story will now look like.  Okay full disclosure we did go out to 8AM breakfast each day at a different restaurant – that part was pretty fun.

Finished last week by seeing a screening of The Kids are Alright, beautifully co-written by my oldest friend (since infancy), Stuart Blumberg.

Spent July 4th weekend continuing to work with Ken via Skype but physically in Chautauqua, New York with my sisters and brothers-in-law and nieces and nephew and dad and wife and son.

Meanwhile our production office down in Georgia has been officially set up and our staff down there continues to grow in size.  I can’t wait to be there and work with everyone in person although I can’t imagine how hot it must be there. I just hope they have good breakfast places.

My mind is so overwhelmed and overloaded by this process, I come home and take guitar lessons on YouTube just to shift gears. This lasts about 10 minutes before I pass out.

By the end of the production perhaps I will be able to properly play “Fire and Rain.”

Oh and last night I watched the very hysterical 3rd episode of Louie

8 weeks till shooting…

PS – don’t forget Childrens Hospital debuts this Sunday at 10:30 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.  The first five weeks are “Season 1″ AKA the original web series; then the new jumbo “Season 2″ episodes begin after that.

Childrens Hospital is a live action drama (stupid comedy) about a bunch of sexy (stupid) doctors who strive to cure illness in kids (have sex with each other).  I’m a writer, director, executive producer and occasional guest star on the show!

We got mountains of helpful feedback from writer friends of ours plus from the producers, actors and others.  Now Ken and I are hard at work filtering through it all and picking out what’s most useful while still keeping our eyes on the prize:  staying true to the germinal idea of what made us want to tell this story in the first place.  Challenging stuff!

We spent the rest of that week in L.A. doing more casting, writing, and early rehearsals with the main cast.

Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern and Erinn Hayes in Chicago

Last week I was back in New York doing casting here, while writing on Skype with Ken (which is how we do it most of the time, living on different coasts.  Wednesday and Thursday nights I was in Chicago promoting Childrens Hospital.  Here’s a report from one of the events.

Spent this weekend in the country with family and catching up on a thousand emails I didn’t get to over the past two weeks.

Now bracing myself for an intense week of 12+ hour work days with Ken, getting this next draft in shape, so our growing team in Georgia can be preparing something resembling what we actually are gonna shoot.

So there you go.

By the way our movie THE TEN is finally out on iTunes.  If you haven’t seen it, by all means now’s the time! Rent or buy instantly here.

Location Scouting: Me, Aaron Osborne, Robin Citrin, Ken Marino

In other good news, our cast has grown by one – the amazing Justin Theroux has come on board.  We worked together on The Ten and I can’t wait to do it again.  He’s one of the smartest, coolest, funniest actors — and guys — I know.  Next week it’s off to L.A. for a read-through, rehearsals, writing and casting.

It’s always so exciting to see actors give their spin on your material.  We’ve been working on these scenes for years but suddenly other people are breathing nuance into it that we never saw.  I really love actors and am awed by what they do.  I also feel terrible they have to go through the audition process which is no fun but a necessary evil I suppose.

The process is truly overwhelming and time consuming and we’re still months away from shooting. Oy.

Meanwhile we’re putting together an excellent crew.  This week it’s off to Georgia to look for locations!

This will be my fourth feature film as director, and the third in partnership with Ken Marino, with whom I wrote the script and with whom I will be producing the film.

Starring in the film (and also producing) is Paul Rudd, continuing is unbroken record of appearing in every movie I’ve made.  He’s the Keener to my Holofcener.

And there are (so far) two new major players in the family: Jennifer Aniston, who co-starred with Paul in Object of My Affection and Friends, is the female lead. She is awesome and funny and you’ll see cool new sides of her in this one.

And finally, producer Judd Apatow, who I have dreamed of one day working with since first becoming aware of his work through my obsession with Larry Sanders Show, Ben Stiller Show and Freaks & Geeks.

I snuck onto the set of Freaks & Geeks about ten years ago, when I was trying to put together the financing for Wet Hot American Summer. Judd was amazingly nice to me, a total stranger. He showed me around the sets, the edit room, the offices – I was so impressed and starstruck.

I ran into him over the years,  did a tiny (deleted) cameo in his movie Anchorman, and solicited bits and pieces of great advice from him as I ventured into the studio system for the first time during Role Models.

Ken and I wrote the first draft of this script a few years ago – the same way we did the first draft of The Ten: We locked ourselves in a room for 12 hours day, without even an idea, committed to emerging with a first draft of SOMETHING within a week.  And that we did.  It was a total mess but it was the basic DNA of what became WanderLust. Since that first week we’ve spent countless thousands more hours rewriting and rewriting and rewriting.

So now we’re in the thick of casting, hiring crew, scouting locations and more rewriting  — always an overwhelming amount of work, but so exciting to see the material come to life, little by little, as talented collaborators start to get involved. We’re planning to start shooting in September!

So I thought I would use this blog to chart our progress, for the record. OK?

P.S. In the shorter term, look for Childrens Hospital on Adult Swim starting July 11 (promo here)

More latest news always on my Twitter feed and on the home page.

Me at breakfast this morning in L.A.

Well my movie watching project has proven to be more challenging than I thought.  I tried to do this while on a business trip to L.A. and…anyway, long story short — it’s still happening, just postponed a few days.

MEANWHILE – if you like books, or need advice – by all means get yourself a copy of You’re A Horrible Person But I Like You, which is now available at your local bookstore or Kindle.  It’s a book of advice from myself and a bunch of other very funny people so check it out!

AND – if you like watching awards shows online, the Streamys are tonight at 8:30 et/5:30 pt — the whole gala affair will be streaming live and you can see whether or not I win any of the THREE awards I’m nominated for!   Plus I’ll be presenting!  If you have an iPhone they even have an app so you can watch on the go.  And if you’re in Los Angeles, by all means come on down to the show but just don’t touch me unless you’ve got Purell.

But as I’ve gotten older and busier and more addicted to internet porn, my cinema intake has dwindled dramatically.

So in the spirit of if not now, when?* and because I’m supposedly a “filmmaker”, I have made a solemn commitment to watch at least one movie a day during the month of April. This may not sound impressive to a lot of you Gen Y media hounds but guess what I don’t need to impress you so get off my back.

I’m planning out the titles in advance. A mix of classic, recent, current, foreign, domestic, arty and farty–movies I’ve been meaning to see over the years but never got around to (except one per week I’ve seen before but was very young and/or asleep and/or in a drive-in making out with Jenny Hovis so don’t remember it.)

Some of these are showing in theaters, others I’ll watch on DVD or in friends’ home media rooms with recliners and root beer (but on the last night, to celebrate, the “root” is going away and it’s gonna be straight up “beer” – YES…GET READY!)

It’s not in stone so if you have a suggestion of something I HAVE to see let me know. Or if something is playing in NYC (or L.A. April 5-14).

Because of the anticipated intense public interest in this amazing project I will be publishing a 900 page coffee table book about my experience and there will be an HBO special about it as well as an exhibition at the Smithsonian.

THE LIST:

WEEK 1

Th 4/1 – AN EDUCATION

Watched alone, in my office on DVD at 9am. As a morning person I particularly enjoyed the experience of watching a movie this early. Performances were amazing.

Fr 4/2 – TERMS OF ENDEARMENT

I’d seen this when it came out but I was 13 and barely remembered it.  Wow does it hold up. Watched at home with my wife and her mom. Laughed laughed laughed then sobbed sobbed sobbed.

Sa 4/3 – FANTASTIC MR. FOX

Again watched at home with my wife.  Fabulous!

Su 4/4 – (postponed)

Had a big family day and then packed for traveling then passed out.  Any day I miss I’ll make up at the end.

WEEK 2
Mo 4/5 – (postponed)

Planned on watching a movie on the flight to L.A. but was working and ran out of time.  I suck.

Tu 4/6 - (postponed)

Played squash after work then sat down to watch a movie in my hotel in L.A. but passed out.  Oops.  This is hard — I didn’t expect to be working so much (editing “Childrens Hospital” which debuts this summer on Adult Swim) so it’s harder than I thought to schedule the time!

We 4/7 – ACE IN THE HOLE

Tonight my friend Jason graciously offered to host a group of friends to watch “Down By Law” in his lovely home theater.  My only job was to bring the DVD.  But I screwed that up.  So we instead watched this awesome Billy Wilder movie that most of us hadn’t seen.  Movie month is back on!

Th 8 – METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER
Fr 9 – DOUBLE IDEMNITY
Sa 10 – ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
Su 11 – PANS LABRYINTH

WEEK 3
Mo 12 – GOLD RUSH
Tu 13 – BARRY LYNDON
We 14 – LIFE IS SWEET
Th 15 – HURT LOCKER
Fr 16 – LA STRADA
Sa 17 – KICK ASS
Su 18 – DIVING BELL AND BUTTERFLY

WEEK 4
Mo 19 – RULES OF THE GAME
Tu 20 – BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
We 21 – LORD OF THE RINGS
Th 22 – THE CRUISE
Fr 23 – PRECIOUS
Sa 24 – HUMPDAY
Su 25 – RED BALLOON

WEEK 5
Mo 26 – 400 BLOWS
Tu 27 – SHAMPOO
We 28 – 1000 CLOWNS
Th 29 – THE SEARCHERS
Fr 30 – CITY LIGHTS


*Coined by Rabbi Hillel and later used as the slogan for the Cleveland Jewish Community Federation’s 1978 welfare fund drive.

This was another tough one folks.  I poured through literally thousands of submissions this week, narrowed it down to the top 100, rewatched those movies and scored them on a weighted points system on a scale of 1 to 15, in the following categories:  quality, lasting value in the culture, “watchability”, lack of general awareness, poorness of marketing in original release and overall under-rated-ness.

Without further ado, the list:

1) THE TEN (2007)
dir. David Wain